SC1472 posted recently that she wasn't sure whether her 10k counted as she had walked a bit. Well, we all reassured her, but it got me thinking about my own runs. My long runs at the weekend are nearly always run/walk and it's a long time since I've run anything over 7k non-stop. Wasn't it about time to test myself again?
So, no excuses this Sunday. I was going to run and not lie in again. And the route was planned as I fell asleep.
I won't say I was up bright and early. But there was still time to squeeze in a long run, long enough to satisfy my inner masochist but not long enough to require large amounts of faffage (such as refueling and drinks). That is one advantage to winter, light jackets have pockets to put keys and mobiles in - oh and gloves, hats, plastic bags for the mobile in case it buckets it down etc. It was cold out there with a nasty wind, but running soon gets you toasty. Gloves came off after 10 minutes, but buff and light jacket stayed on the whole time.
The chosen route is one of my favourites, over a couple of fields to our local village, through the village and then out past farms and fields. The tarmac road peters out into a farm track where it crosses a stream and then follows the stream up to one of our many local lakes. This one is not as overcrowded as some - it has no beer garden for a start, but it is very picturesque and I love running round it. I've sat on a little grassy peninsula here in winter, leaning back on grassy tussocks, pensively contemplating the frozen water and thinking about all sorts of things. In summer I have used a strategically placed bench at just over 1/2 way to re-fuel and look out over the water, watching the sunbathers and swimmers. But that was not the intention today. Today I was running non-stop.
And I did. Slow and steady, although I did get steadily faster - nice negative splits. I was aiming for 13k, but my watch started warning me that battery was low at about 12k. Do you lose all the data from the run if the watch dies on you and you haven't saved? I don't know, I've never done it and I wasn't about to find out now. So on the second warning I reluctantly stopped at 12.65k and quickly saved the data. I'll have to remember that the cold uses up more battery. It was a good, solid run, I could have gone further and I proved to myself that I can still run longer distances non-stop. Mission accomplished methinks!
